Limited availability
The Error.isError()
static method determines whether the passed value is an Error
.
value
The value to be checked.
true
if value
is an Error
; otherwise, false
.
Error.isError()
checks if the passed value is an Error
. It does so by performing a branded check for a private field initialized by the Error()
constructor. This is the same mechanism used by Array.isArray()
, which is in turn similar to the mechanism used by the in
operator.
It is a more robust alternative to instanceof Error
because it avoids false positives and false negatives:
Error.isError()
rejects values that aren't actual Error
instances, even if they have Error.prototype
in their prototype chain â instanceof Error
would accept these as it does check the prototype chain.Error.isError()
accepts Error
objects constructed in another realm â instanceof Error
returns false
for these because the identity of the Error
constructor is different across realms.Error.isError()
returns true
for DOMException
instances. This is because, although DOMException
is not specified as a real subclass of Error
(the Error
constructor is not the prototype of the DOMException
constructor), DOMException
still behaves like Error
for all branded checking purposes.
// all following calls return true
Error.isError(new Error());
Error.isError(new TypeError());
Error.isError(new DOMException());
try {
1 + 1n;
} catch (e) {
console.log(Error.isError(e)); // The operation threw a TypeError, so this returns true
}
// all following calls return false
Error.isError();
Error.isError({});
Error.isError(null);
Error.isError(undefined);
Error.isError(17);
Error.isError("Error");
Error.isError(true);
Error.isError(false);
// This is not an error, because the object does not have the private field
// initialized by the Error constructor
Error.isError({ __proto__: Error.prototype });
instanceof vs. Error.isError()
When checking for Error
instance, Error.isError()
is preferred over instanceof
because it works across realms.
const iframe = document.createElement("iframe");
document.body.appendChild(iframe);
const xError = window.frames[window.frames.length - 1].Error;
const error = new xError();
// Correctly checking for Error
Error.isError(error); // true
// The prototype of error is xError.prototype, which is a
// different object from Error.prototype
error instanceof Error; // false
Normalizing caught errors
You can use Error.isError()
to detect if the caught value is an error and normalize it to an error object.
try {
throw "Oops; this is not an Error object";
} catch (e) {
if (!Error.isError(e)) {
e = new Error(e);
}
console.error(e.message);
}
Specifications Browser compatibility See also
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4